John 3:14-21
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, March 10, comes from John chapter three, verses 14 through 21. Jesus said, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. But in order that the world might be saved through Him, whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. And this is the judgment, the light has come into the world. And people love the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things, hates the light, and does not come into the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true, comes into the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. He rents the reading. This passage begins with a reference to our Old Testament reading for the week from Numbers chapter 21. With the bronze serpent, Jesus says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. We read this on Tuesday. And so what we see is that in that story, the people grumble against God and God said serpents, poison, venomous serpents to bite the people. When they pray for relief, Moses takes a bronze serpent, and instead of taking the venomous snakes away, the serpent becomes a way to escape death. So when they're bitten, they look on the serpent, believe and live. And so Jesus Christ becomes something similar. He says, that he will be lifted up, the Son of Man will be lifted up, the whatever looks on him and believes will have eternal life. So he's like that bronze serpent, except it's not just the venom of snakes that he is freeing us from, but death itself, that we have eternal life. Then we get the classic passage that everybody knows, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. This is sometimes called the gospel in the nutshell, a God sent His only Son, so that all who believe in Him can have eternal life. Now it continues, For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. So this shows the heart of God, God is not here to do not send Jesus as a judge, to condemn, but with the aim of salvation, that whoever believes in Him is not condemned. That is, he wants the whole world to be saved. But that doesn't mean there is no condemnation out there. It says, whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And so, what we see here is that there is a division in the world, between those who believe and those who do not. When God sends a rescuer, out to rescue people from danger, the people who cling to the rescuer are going to be saved and the people who avoid the rescuer are not going to be saved, they will simply perish under the danger that they're facing. So if you've got somebody out there who's in a in a sea, thrashing around getting hypothermia about to go under, and you throw my life raft, and you say, Come on in, I'll save you and they say, No, no, no, I can swim. That's what's going on, when they don't cling to Jesus Christ, that they're already lost, already condemned with the world. So continues, and this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and the people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their works were evil. And so That's what life is like, right? So many people, they see the light of Christ. And they say, You know what, I kind of like evil. Now, nobody actually, like in their head says, Yeah, you know, evil evils for me, I want to be a bad guy. But we've got all of these things that we say, well, I shouldn't have to give up this favorite sin that I love. Or I shouldn't have to give up this thing that I like to be a Christian, I should be able to do whatever I want. And God should just love me because I'm awesome. And you know, that's not how it works. People love evil, and they love sin. And it's true. And many times, we'll just cling to that. He says, For everyone who does wicked things, hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. And that's one of those things that makes it hard to be a Christian, is that we have to admit that we are sinners, and not just sinners but evil. Right. We have rebelled against God, and we love our sin, we actually want to be we we love the things that we're we're clinging to from our old self, and that sinful flesh inside us just says, oh, isn't that nice to be able to do whatever we want. And when we become a Christian, we are our hearts are exposed. And we have to present that before God and say, Yeah, I'm a broken person who can't do anything right without you, God, I need you know, that says, but whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. And so those who have faith, we come to the light, we're not afraid of having this our sin being exposed, and we live in the light. Now, what's really interesting about this passage is that we often just quote for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. And then forget about the rest. And often the what that HYAH does is it leads us leaves a sense to have the idea that this believing in Him is almost notional, right? What I mean by notional is that believing in Jesus simply means knowing his name and having positive feelings about him. But when Jesus goes on to explain what that means is there's much more complicated, there's some faithfulness in there. Right? Our we have to be willing to let our sin be exposed and live in the light, confess our sins, hear the word, receive forgiveness, and do the works that he has sent us for. And so it's not just like this idea. Like I know Jesus's name, and it makes me smile that doesn't save. Faith is something more than that, that causes a gift of the Holy Spirit that causes us to cling to God's Word and His promises, to confess our sins, to receive forgiveness and desire to do the work that God has sent us to do. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai